Wall Street pulls back from its record heights

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are pulling away from their record heights on Monday.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.6% in afternoon trading, though it remains within 0.9% of its all-time high set in October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 318 points, or 0.7%, as of 2:11 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% lower.

Berkshire Hathaway was a heavy weight on the market and fell 1.7% after announcing a shake-up of some of its top leadership. Todd Combs, who had been CEO of the company's GEICO insurance business, is leaving for a job at JPMorgan Chase, while Chief Financial Officer Marc Hamburg will retire next year.

Netflix dropped 4.2% after Paramount announced a bid in hopes of trumping Netflix's deal to buy Warner Bros., which was announced last week.

Paramount said it’s offering $30 for each Warner Bros. Discovery share, as well as a quicker and easier way for investors to get their payout. Paramount is offering to buy all of Warner Bros. Discovery in cash, unlike Netflix’s offer of cash and stock for just Warner Bros. following its pending split with Discovery.

The board of directors for Warner Bros. Discovery had agreed to Netflix's offer last week, but it's already facing potential scrutiny from federal regulators because of worries about too much industry power sitting at one company. President Donald Trump said Sunday that a Netflix-Warner Bros. combination “could be a problem.”

Warner Bros. Discovery rose 3.3% following the hostile buyout bid, and Paramount Skydance’s stock climbed 7.7%.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Confluent soared 29.3% after IBM said it would buy the company, which helps customers connect and process data. IBM said the $11 billion deal will help customers deploy artificial-intelligence tools better and faster, and its shares added 0.6%.

Carvana jumped 13.3% in its first trading after learning it will join the S&P 500 index on Dec. 22. Many professional investors directly mimic the index or at least measure their performance against it, which will push many to buy any stocks within it.

CRH, a provider of building materials, rose 5.1%, and Comfort Systems USA, a provider of mechanical and electrical contracting services, was mostly unchanged after likewise learning they’ll join the S&P 500 in a couple weeks.

They will replace LKQ, Solstice Advanced Materials and Mohawk Industries, which have all shrunk enough in size that they’ll drop down to the S&P SmallCap 600 index of smaller stocks.

CoreWeave sank 5% after the AI cloud company said it’s raising $2 billion in debt that it could repay in stock and cash.

Moves elsewhere on Wall Street were relatively modest. The U.S. stock market has become much more calm recently following weeks of sharp and scary swings.

The highlight of this week will come Wednesday, when the Federal Reserve will announce its latest move on interest rates.

Stocks have already run to the edge of their records on widespread expectations that the Fed will cut its main interest rate for the third time this year. Lower interest rates can give the economy and prices for investments a boost, though their downside is that they can worsen inflation.

The big question is what kind of hints the Fed will offer about where interest rates will go after that. Many on Wall Street are bracing for talk aimed at tamping down expectations for more cuts in 2026.

Inflation has stubbornly remained above the Fed’s 2% target, and Fed officials are notably split in their opinions about whether high inflation or the slowing job market is the bigger threat to the economy.